It’s Michael Jordan’s 60’s birthday

Is he still the greatest of all time?

Photo: public domain

Today, February 17, 2023, is the 60th birthday of Michael Jordan.

Earlier this week, I heard Nick Wright on Colin Cowherd’s podcast discuss how the admiration of Jordan has distorted the sports media landscape. Wright himself has the reputation of having a pro-Lebron James bias in debates over the greatest NBA player of all time (GOAT), but he articulated something that has bothered me for a long time.

Eight years ago, when the Patriots won their fourth Super Bowl with Tom Brady at quarterback, we heard people say or imply that Joe Montana’s 4–0 record as Super Bowl quarterback was more impressive than Brady’s (then) record of 4–2.

They weren’t saying Montana had played better in his Super Bowls. They weren’t saying Montana was still better than Brady. Those were valid opinions. Instead, they used Brady’s achievement of winning six conference championships against him.

That irritated me and apparently Wright as well. But Wright said that this really goes back to Jordan. People wanted to hold on to Jordan’s 6–0 record in the NBA Finals as better than Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s record of 6–4. As if being runner-up is worse than not reaching the Finals at all, or, logically, than even reaching the playoffs.